Efforts Underway to Restore New Salem Historic Site

[Anita]

"Efforts underway to restore crumbling site where Abraham Lincoln began his political rise" by Addison Wright/Chicago Tribune March, 2025

"Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site has fallen into disrepair as the tab for deferred maintenance on properties managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources has grown to an estimated $1 billion statewide, according to IDNR spokesperson Jayette Bolinski.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/03/2...coln-site/

[Gene C]

Sad commentary on the State of Illinois and their lack of proper management.
It's not an issue unique to Illinois.

If you learn about how New Salem was built, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), this could be the answer to repairing many of our parks that have fallen into disrepair, building small affordable public housing, at the same time teaching young men a trade and improving their education.

A good book on this is Big Shoulders by William Jamerson.
https://www.amazon.com/Big-Shoulders-Wil...227&sr=1-1

[Anita]

Thanks Gene. It's a great suggestion to create an updated version of the CCC. I read Jameson's book reviews on Amazon and then found this on the Internet Archive.

Presentation by Bill Jamerson, filmmaker, songwriter, and author of Big Shoulders, a historical novel that follows a year in the life of a seventeen-year-old youth from Detroit who enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937. Listen here https://archive.org/details/BillJamerson...ationCorps

He also made a documentary film Camp Forgotten: the Civilian Conservation Corps in Michigan - "Camp Forgotten explores the role of the CCC in Michigan. Some of their projects included the building of the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, Caberfae Ski Area, and the transport of moose from Isle Royale to the Upper Peninsula. The only Native American CCC camp in the nation was also in the state, Camp Marquette. Camp Forgotten includes interviews with over a dozen CCC members who vividly describe life in camp and how the experience changed their lives. Combining archival footage and photographs with location cinematography of CCC-built structures, this timeless program tells the dramatic story of how young men discovered their potential as productive citizens while restoring Michigan's devasted wilderness"